Jon Hoche and Megan Bussiere join Jimmy on Independence Day for a rip-roaring America fueled firework of a podcast! Well, something like that. They give their thoughts on the trailers for Inhumans, Death Note and Jumanji. They also give love to Harry Potter on its 20th anniversary which prompts Megan to get sorted in a house while we podcast. Which house? Listen to find out! Jimmy also closes out the awesome Heroes Con interviews he got with 2 great ones with Megan Levens (Madame Frankenstein) and Chris Sheridan (Motorcycle Samurai). Both just fantastic cartoonists and all around lovely folks. Great interviews so do give a listen! News includes: Marvel Legacy happenings, Rick & Morty returns, Patty Jenkins on Wonder Woman 2, a Sense8 special, Nimona film gets a release date, a live action The Jetsons, Game of Thrones Season 8 could be epic and more! Leave your iTunes comments! 5 stars and nothing but love! Also, get a hold of us!

Jon Hoche and Megan Bussiere join Jimmy on Independence Day for a rip-roaring America fueled firework of a podcast! Well, something like that. They give their thoughts on the trailers for Inhumans, Death Note and Jumanji. They also give love to Harry Potter on its 20th anniversary which prompts Megan to get sorted in a house while we podcast. Which house? Listen to find out! Jimmy also closes out the awesome Heroes Con interviews he got with 2 great ones with Megan Levens (Madame Frankenstein) and Chris Sheridan (Motorcycle Samurai). Both just fantastic cartoonists and all around lovely folks. Great interviews so do give a listen! News includes: Marvel Legacy happenings, Rick & Morty returns, Patty Jenkins on Wonder Woman 2, a Sense8 special, Nimona film gets a release date, a live action The Jetsons, Game of Thrones Season 8 could be epic and more! Leave your iTunes comments! 5 stars and nothing but love! Also, get a hold of us!

Due to some sort of national duty of ours, no one is available to co-host so Jimmy flies solo. But fret not, he recruits friends to send some audio reviews and read the news. Many thanks to Heidi, Marta, Emily, Rachel, Melissa and Dave for participating! He also had a chance to sit down with Rob Kutner at The Plaza Hotel to talk about his comic book Shrinkage, his podcast Runaway Brains and his work as a writer on The Daily Show and Conan. News includes: Marvel announced a Star Wars: Doctor Aphra comic series, DC announced a Captain Atom series and an Amazons series, IDW announced a Biff to the Future comic series, Red Dead Redemption 2 is coming next fall, Donald Glover has been cast as a young Lando Calrissian in the upcoming solo Han Solo film, Season 2 of Jessica Jones will have all female directors, Cyborg Superman is coming to Supergirl, Young Justice season 3 is coming, a Time Bandits TV series is in the works, Michael Keaton is playing The Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming and more! Leave your iTunes comments! 5 stars and nothing but love! Also, get a hold of us!

We’re back! After a 6 week hiatus filled with San Diego Comic Con coverage goodness, Jimmy and Emily return with an episode full of reviews (like, lots of them!)) and news and all sorts of nerdy stuff. Jimmy attended Star Trek Misson New York and gives his recap. News includes: multiple new heroes will be appearing in various superhero shows, the Nimona audiobook gets a full cast, Brie Larson is Captain Marvel, Zendaya is Mary Jane Watson, Rob Liefeld is bringing back Youngblood to Image Comics, Riri Williams will be Ironheart, the Invincible comic will end with issue #144, Supergirl and The Flash will crossover in a 2 episode musical event, a new animated movie Batman: Return of the Caped Crusader will feature the voices of Adam West/Burt Ward/Julie Newmar, and much more! Leave your iTunes comments! 5 stars and nothing but love! Also, get a hold of us!

Jimmy is joined in studio by regular co-host Jon Hoche and newcomer/future foley artist Megan Bussiere! They chat some more Best of 2015 that they forgot about, Jimmy’s going to guest on another podcast and they focus on The Force before heading off to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the 3rd time (2nd for Megan)! News includes: Gene Yang named national ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Netflix will launch new Dreamworks Animation shows including Voltron, The Venture Bros. season 6 premieres January 31st, KaBoom! Studios is making Over the Garden Wall an ongoing series and the final hour long episode of Gravity Falls will air February 15. Leave your iTunes comments! 5 stars and nothing but love! Also, get a hold of us!

It’s our Best of 2015! Jimmy sits down with The Beat’s Heidi MacDonald and good pal Jon Hoche to go over their 2015 favorites in comic books, TV and film. They didn’t read or watch everything released that year, so it’s just the Best of what they did read/watch. Fun discussions on great comics, their creators, TV shows, films, actors and more. What were your favorites last year? Leave your iTunes comments! 5 stars and nothing but love! Also, get a hold of us!

Due to a crazy schedule before leaving for Heroes Con this weekend, Jimmy has to do a quickie solo episode. Down at Heroes Con, Jimmy will be moderating both the DC Comics and Image Comics panels. And, he’ll be getting as many interviews as he can, as per usual! LOADS of reviews from comics, TV and film this week. News includes: Titan Comics will publish comics based on the upcoming NBC series Heroes Reborn, Fox animation has picked up the rights to Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona, The Simpsons showrunner Al Jean clears up the Homer/Marge split story for the upcoming season 27, Chiwetel Ejiofor has been cast as Baron Mordo in the upcoming Doctor Strange film, Starz has greenlit Neil Gaiman’s America Gods, E3 news and more! Leave your iTunes comments! 5 stars and nothing but love!

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Terror, Teens, and Tatsumi

This week on the podcast, Derek and Andy W. discuss three new and very different titles. They begin with a narrative based in reality, Mike’s Place: A True Story of Love, Blues, and Terror in Tel Aviv, written by Jack Baxter and Joshua Faudem, with art by Koren Shadmi (First Second). This is the story of an American who travels to Israel to make a documentary, teams up with an Israeli film student, and then learns firsthand both the promises and the dangers of the conflicted culture. Mike’s Place is beachfront bar in Tel Aviv where politics and religion are checked at the front door. It’s sacred text is written with music, drink, and multicultural camaraderie. But the filmmakers soon learn that safe havens, political and personal, can be a tenuous proposition. Andy and Derek highlight the authors’ evenhanded approach to their politically charged subject matter as well as their ability to make Mike’s Place a story of community, not a single-minded treatise. And after all of that reality, the Two Guys head in the opposite direction with fantasy. Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona (HarperCollins) is a story with supervillains, shapeshifters, and lots of cool scheming. This was a highly popular webcomic — in fact, it’s nominated in that category for this year’s Eisner Awards — that is now high-production trade paperback. Overall, both of the guys like the book, however, both of them also have problems with Stevenson’s narrative. Andy feels that the author changes the rules of her storytelling as the book progresses, giving it an uneven feel. And Derek has problems with the pacing and overall story coherency. There are some scenes that are much too decompressed, and at times the dialogue is bloated and meandering. In many ways, the guys see Nimona as illustrative example of how popular webcomics may not successfully translate into other narrative platforms. Stevenson’s style might have resonated with devoted web readers, eagerly awaiting each digital installment, but that kind of storytelling isn’t always as effective (or as convincing) when presented as a singular text. Standing in stark contrast is the final title that Derek and Andy discuss, Optic Nerve #14, by Adrian Tomine. As he reveals in the issue’s final self-depricating one-pager, Tomine has tried to resist the instantaneous, immediately gratifying world of digital publication and social media. This latest issue of his signature series, published by Drawn and Quarterly since 1995, is divided into two main stories. “Killing and Dying” is a family drama surrounding a teenager’s desire to become a standup comedian, and “Intruders,” dedicated to Yoshihiro Tatsumi, is an unsettling story about a soldier between tours of duty trying to reacquaint himself with his former life. Each is a brilliant example of Tomine’s skills as a storyteller, his abilities to take common, everyday premises and invest in them profound themes. Issue #14 is reminiscent of the previous two issues of Optic Nerve — structured similarly, presented similarly, and packaged similarly — and all three will soon be collected together in Killing and Dying. Much like the guys felt about Seth and Palookaville last month, both Derek and Andy see Adrian Tomine as one of the most important comics artists working today, and his art is a careful, measured testament to medium’s potential.

Live from San Diego Comic-Con, it’s More To Come! Interviews fresh from the convention floor from Heidi MacDonald, the Eisner-nominated blogger of ComicsBeat.com, Calvin Reid, Senior News Editor of Publishers Weekly, with new episodes daily during the con!

In today’s episode, Heidi and Calvin interview Stephen Robson, founder of the comics publisher Fanfare/Ponent Mon, Noelle Stevenson, creator of the popular webcomic Nimona, about her publishing deal and upcoming work on Adventure Time and The Bravest Warrior, and Terry Nantier of NBM about NBM and the groundbreaking comic Omaha the Cat Dancer in this podcast from PW Comics World.

Our San Diego Comic-Con special coverage is over, but stay tuned for our next regularly scheduled episode, there will be More To Come!